Call In An Arbitrator

Our Town

Avon & Simsbury

December 19, 2001

Unless it can pull off a miracle soon, the Simsbury Water Pollution Control Authority should let an arbitrator break the two-year deadlock with Avon over how to pay for an upgrade to their shared wastewater treatment plant.

The deal has been held up because the towns, which have divided the cost of operating the plant for about 30 years, can't decide how to split the $26 million cost of the renovation. The authority is set to meet tonight at the plant on Drake Hill Road to consider going to arbitration.

Hiring an arbitrator makes sense.

Settling the dispute as quickly as possible has taken on urgency because the project is slated to receive a state Department of Environmental Protection grant to cover about 15 percent of the cost. It is also in line for a state loan to help with the remainder.

If the authority doesn't settle the renovation plans soon, officials say, the DEP money to help with the project could be depleted.

The plant, moreover, is operating at near capacity. If it overflows, it would send half-treated wastewater into the Farmington River.

Failing to make timely improvements also means that the sewer system can't expand to allow for more development. If a builder wants to develop an area where there is no way to dispose of wastewater, the authority cannot now handle more flow. In fact, even if the plant's renovation plan were agreed upon today, the project would take five to seven years to finish.

The authority's chairman, Joshua Storm, estimates Avon's share of the renovation at about 25 percent, or about $6.5 million. But town manager Philip K. Schenck Jr. says Avon should pay between $4 million and $6 million.

Avon and Simsbury should have reached a mutually acceptable figure by now.